Payment of debt cancels auction of vacant Norwich shopping center

Norwich – A scheduled tax foreclosure auction of the former Big Y shopping plaza on Sturtevant Street was canceled today after the owner paid off the more than $261,500 in back taxes and legal fees owed to the city.

The exact amount paid by owner Zabro Properties LLC was not available today.

The plaza, with addresses of 204, 57-61 and 68 Sturtevant St., had been home to the Big Y supermarket, a fitness center and several smaller businesses.

At the time a New London Superior Court judge ordered the auction sale, the debt to the city was $261,500, and the law firm Cohn-Birnbaum & Shea held a mortgage of $50,040.

The market value of the building is $800,000, according to the court-order appraisal, but nearly the entire property sits in the Yantic River 100-year floodplain, making redevelopment difficult, city planning director Peter Davis said.